Thread: 5.4 triton

Its a proven fact that throttle body spacers do nothing on a fuel injected engine. I have tested this claim myself on a 5.0L V8, 4.2L V6, 2.4L I4, and several other cars on a DynoJet dyno from a college class. No gain in power or performance. Throttle Body Spacers were brought into the market with carburated vehicles, where the fuel/air is mixed in the carb and the spacer helps atomize the fuel/air mixture even farther. On a carburated vehicles, you could see a 1-2hp increase. Nothing major. On a fuel injected engine with port injection (99% of the cars on the road) or direct injection (somewhat new technology), putting a throttle body spacer does nothing but cause more parasitic drag on the air charge since the fuel is not mixed with the air until it reaches the intake plenum/injector stage. Anyone that reports "gains" with these either has suffered from the placebo effect or easily falls for marketing hype.

Here is the dissertation my project manager typed up:

"I can't stress this enough: under *controlled* circumstances with a 350CI Chevrolet fuel-injected engine producing 180hp and every engineering student submitting a design NO measurable hp or fuel economy gains were recorded from a throttle body spacer at or under approximately 1 meter long. This was using an assortment of aftermarket products as well as the shop designs. It did lead however to massive throttle lag.
A long straight tube on the air side of the carburator or TB with no vanes, few bends, no internal sources of turbulence, a cold air source and a large, quality paper element returned the best HP and fuel economy gains without modifying the mechanics of the engine.
Also of note Shell Silver motor oil (no longer available) produced 2 HP more than other motor oils in the same engine. We did not test synthetic oils or additives because these would have 'contaminated' the engine. Some motor oils actually reduced HP but I can't name them"


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This was the first result on googling "Throttle Body Spacers effectiveness":

"No. Not in today's cars. All new cars are MFI, multi point fuel injection. These spacers may have some effect in older cars which utuilize TBI, throttle body injection, where the fuel is mixed before the throttle body. Simply put, it has been documented and proven that these spacers have little to no effect on new engines. You would be lucky to see a 2hp improvement. If horsepower could be so easily manipulated by the shape or size of the throttle body, the manufacturer would have made it into their design.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_throttle_body_spacers_effective#ixzz21e9sCJgX"
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There are pages and pages debunking this stuff. I've done the testing firsthand and snicker whenever someone tells me they put a TBS on a F/I engine. Its their money, but you would've been better off buying a gallon of gasoline and lighting your money on fire.

tl;dr- Don't waste your money. They are nothing but glorified paper weights on F/I engines.

Originally Posted by Joe Grasso

Well ok professor I guess we struck a nerve. I also am on a Dyno frequently with my GT 500. I got 4 hp gain with the spacer and tipped the scale pullin 18-19 mpg with my truck. Granted its a new motor. But I can email u the pull and u can see it with it your own eyes. But the hell with all that. U come up to new jersey and tune my truck. Or I'm comin down there so u can see. Lol. Jk. Way to know ur sh%t but no bull. It does well.

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Didn't change anything. Just put the spacer on. Heard the same thing about it too. Just got one and it did something. No game changer stuff. Minimal. But noticeable And no. I do not have one on the GT 500. Lol

If you dyno frequently you also know that anything under 5hp can change with the stoichiometry of the ECU based on the MAF sensor's reading of simple atmospheric conditions at the time of the test. Like said above, we did up to 5-6 pulls to get a baseline reading. All stock, with back to back runs we saw gains of 2.5hp, then a loss of 1.3hp, then a gain of 3.4hp, then a gain of another hp. For such a massive engine, simple atmospheric changes will result in a simple return. Anything under 7hp does not warrant a "change" in our book. With over 250+ pulls in a month on five different engines to test this theory, I can definitely tell you not only is 4hp not a "gain" but its a waste of money.

Its too hot down here. You'll get more HP staying up there! lol